5 Tips for Healthy Meal Prepping

Meal prepping is a fantastic way to ensure your weekly eating habits stay on track, no matter what goals you have.  It’s easy to feel discouraged at the thought of planning a whole week worth of meals ahead of time.  It can be daunting, for sure, but it doesn’t have to be. I was compelled to start meal planning for health issues and weight management.  Food allergies make eating out difficult at times.  We just found made-ahead meals are the way to go for us.  

So what are the 5 Key Tips that I have to share?  It took practice and some wasted meals for me to get this into a well functioning system in our house.  Hopefully my takeaways will help you streamline your meal-prepping system.

1.  Plan a simple Breakfast and Lunch that the whole family loves.
Some of my go-to breakfast meals are easy to prep and hold up all week, taste great hot or cold.

Overnight oats
 1 serving of instant oatmeal 
1/2 serving of (choice of milk)
1 Tablespoon of Chia Seeds 
Savory or sweet seasoning (we alternate to mix it up) 
(Based on the seasoning, fruit or veggies and plain or sweet greek yogurt)
**A sweet example would be blueberry yogurt with a handful of blueberries and cinnamon - this tastes like a cobbler - Really, any flavors that you like work so well for this dish.  
**A savory example would be plain greek yogurt with diced cucumber and dill - tastes like Tzatziki.  
Store in a jar or other packable container and breakfast is ready.  I put enough together for a few days for everyone in the family. 

We like a little variety so I make a second choice, as well.  Usually this is some for of Breakfast Sandwiches that can be wrapped and heated quickly in the microwave or eaten cold.    Egg, tomato and cheese make a great combo that holds up.  Nut butter, honey and thin apple slices work well too.  

Muffins and protein cookies are a great option too!

Lunch consists of salads, like the quinoa and kale salad featured above.  Cooked quinoa, kale, cucumber, red onion and cherry tomatoes, coated in a mixture of olive oil garlic and herbs with lemon juice. Delicious hot or cold.

I feature lettuce wraps all of the time on my social accounts. These are the easiest low calorie and filling meal.  Use romaine lettuce leaves, or steamed cabbage leaves and roll inside your favorite:  veggies, meat and cheese.  Wrap and store in a packable container and lunch is set.  

2.  Don’t forget the snacks!​
This was a big mistake for me, at the onset of my meal-prepping.  Snacks are important meals too.  I prep foods like featured in the photo above:  cheese sticks of all different types, prepped vegetables paired with hummus and/or cottage cheese.  I prep fruit ahead too.  Cut up apple, strawberries, mix in some grapes and blueberries and divide into single serving fruit cups.  Pre-portion things like dried fruit and nuts so that they are ready to grab and go.    Same goes for: crackers, pretzels or protein cookies.  Pre-divided makes staying on track more manageable.  I’ve found that if snacks are not portioned out, it’s easy to grab a package when one is hungry and over eat it.  

3.  Plan beverages.
This is important for multiple reasons.  It can be difficult to consume a sufficient intake of water throughout the day.  Pre-filling a water bottle ensures that it’s ready to grab and go, as well as, refill throughout the day.  Our family likes to make infused water beverages. If cutting back on the sugary coffees, sodas or juice is a goal, you may enjoy this.  I boil things like lemon and ginger with a little cinnamon and sugar.  This is a delicious detoxifying drink hot or cold, anytime of day.  We also do a blend of water with pineapple juice or crushed pineapple and lemon - delicious!  You can simple place water in a pitcher and infuse with any fruit you love.  Mint is a tasty infusion as well.  Add a little honey if you like the sweet taste.  

As for coffee, we make ours at home.  We use healthier, lower calorie creamer coupled with sugar-free syrups to keep the calories lower.  We have found these are just as tasty as any coffee shop version.  If boosting the protein is on your list, add some collagen powder to your morning coffee.  These powders come in all different flavors and work really well as a coffee add in.

4.  Try to keep it unprocessed.
This is so tough nowadays, but eat as many things that are natural, colorful and nutrient packed as you can.  It is easier to do this if you are meal prepping.  The planning ahead makes all of the difference.   I’ve also found, with meal prepping, I am able to log all of my food ahead of time.   This makes it easy to know exactly what I am able to eat in a day; and ensure that I am getting all of my macros and vitamins. Each week the menu can be tweaked a bit for anything lacking the week before.    

5.  Dinner may be partially prepped ahead and sides cooked nightly.
For the final meal of the day, I usually try to prep and cook the proteins.  I’ve found this small step makes a huge difference at night.  Doing this frees up time to for family and takes away the most time consuming part of dinner.  I will marinate and cook a whole batch of tofu, beans, chicken, fish or beef to pair with sides such as rice, quinoa, salad bowls and steamed vegetables cooked at night.  One big batch of oven baked chicken, marinated to taste, can make a rice bowl one night, a salad or burrito bowl another night or be paired with the steamed vegetables to mix it up a bit.  Different meals every night from the same base protein.  This saves time and money.  Any extras at week’s end work great for little wraps for lunch or snacks.  

Planning out each meal in advance helps.  My process is to quickly plan the meals and snacks for the week.  Make my grocery list and shop.  Once home, clean and prep the whole grocery haul.  The process usually only takes a couple of hours at the most.  Some weeks I am able to do it all in 1.  Meal prepping is not as daunting as you may think.  A few practice runs and you will be a pro.

I’m Sheryl of SheDo50Too. This is my lifestyle blog about being over 50 and staying fit, healthy and fashionable.  My motto is healthy, beautiful and vibrant life at any age.  Please like and follow me if you want all of my inspo for life over 50. 

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